New standardized tests will have a greater percentage of questions that involve critical thinking and application of knowledge as compared to the old California standards, according to Principal Tim Hornig at the Common Core information night. The event took place in the Media Center in front of about 100 parents on Jan. 29, and was designed for those who were curious about the new Common Core standards that are going to be enacted in the following years. With Hornig speaking that night, English teacher Justin Conn and Executive Director of Educational Services Dr. Jason Viloria were present to touch upon the most radical changes to curriculum that Common Core is to bring.

One major difference between the old curriculum and the new Common Core standards is the new standardized tests that will test a “greater depth of knowledge”, said Hornig. In past years, the vast majority of the questions in the California standardized tests only required factual recall and little actual application of knowledge. The new standardized tests will have greater student participation, with some questions having multiple answers and with the computer section, students will have to interact with the program to answer the question. For example, one sample question Hornig provided involved dragging numbers from a number bank into a blank equation in order to answer it. Other standard tests like the AP and the SAT and ACT are also making changes in their standards to fall more in line with the themes of Common Core, he added.

Common Core standards are going to affect English and math first, with curriculum related to social science and science to follow in the near future.  Some of the major changes related to English are the greater role of non-fiction material taught in the classroom along with fiction material and the interaction with more complex texts, Conn said. Furthermore, the average difficulty of reading material for each grade level is to increase significantly.

According to Viloria, math will focus on three main aspects: an emphasis on understanding concepts, less breadth and more depth of topics, and a greater stress on overarching mathematical themes.

Other changes involving Common Core are the suspension of both the Academic Performance Index (API) and social studies standardized tests for the next few years, Hornig said. In addition, there will be a non-scored pilot test running later this year for students in third through eighth grade and students in eleventh grade.